The impact of past sexual experiences on attributions of responsibility for rape

Two factors potentially affect observers'attributions of responsibility to a rape survivor: how closely they identify with the survivor and how much they adhere to rape myths. To assess the impact of these factors, 157 female college students categorized by their sexual assault history and by their acceptance of rape myths, evaluated a sexual assault scenario. It was hypothesized that previously victimized participants would attribute less blame, and that those participants who self-identify as rape survivors would view the assault as rape more often than other participants. Neither hypothesis was supported. As expected, those who scored higher on the Rape Myths Acceptance Scale(RMAS) blamed the victim more and were less likely to believe rape had occurred. Only one subscale of the RMAS, Adversarial Sexual Beliefs, was consistently associated with participants'evaluation of the scenario, suggesting that this dimension may be especially important to understanding an observer's assessment of rape.     

Competition as Public Policy: a Review of Challenge Funding

Since their introduction in 1984 Challenge funds have been widely adopted by central government. They are now used by twelve government departments to distribute competitively more than £3,250 million of Exchequer funds. The introduction of Challenge funds appears to have been politically driven, usually focusing on the objectives of cost and efficiency rather than quality and equity. They represent a further manifestation of the introduction of competition and 'market style' structures. This paper examines the key features of 41 Challenge funds and their operational characteristics. Numerous benefits, such as cost savings and innovation, arising from the introduction of Challenge funds have been put forward. By reviewing other studies, which have investigated the impact of the introduction of competition in producer and consumer markets, and through comparison with previous schemes it is possible to examine the potential impact of Challenge funds. Administrative and monitoring mechanisms are found to be centralizing control, despite assertions to the contrary. There is a growing concern that the level of information collection required is too arduous and it is used to control and regulate schemes rather than as a method of investigating where operations could be improved. Leverage from Challenge funds has been no more successful than earlier non-competitive initiatives. Competitive bidding could stifle innovation and participatory democracy is not encouraged or facilitated by Challenge funds.     

Illegal behavior

What is illegal behavior? An intuitively plausible answer is that illegal behavior is behavior which the government discourages by the use of coercion. Although such coercion theories are generally out of favor today, the usual objections to such a theory can be plausibly answered, and moreover the theory has significant advantages over other ways of understanding the notion of illegal behavior.     

Improving organisational performance—some thoughts on the role of management development

This article addresses the issue of local citizenship in the context of shifting urban structures. Drawing on the literature on modes of responses to local public policy based on Hirschman's (1970) model of Exit, Voice and Loyalty, the study offers the concept of urban civic worlds as an explanatory concept for local citizenship behavioural manifestations. The hypotheses regarding urban civic worlds are tested in a survey in the city of Tel Aviv. Eight types of urban civic worlds are examined. The implications of the multiplicity of urban civic world on the governance in localities is discussed.